


Hand in Hand

by bela013



Series: Fantine x Javert [7]
Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, well Cosette is there she just don't say anything
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-12
Updated: 2013-09-12
Packaged: 2017-12-26 08:38:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/963890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bela013/pseuds/bela013
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While one is trying not to see, the other is trying not to dream.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hand in Hand

He was not sure if he should stay. He tried leaving earlier, but he came back running, for a doll, or that was what he was going to keep repeating to himself. He wasn’t sure that he could leave them, and that notion was something worth panic. But he was a man grown, an inspector, so he sat on the hard chair by her bed, and offered his hand when she stretched out her in invitation.

 

Silent sobs echoed on the bare room that he left her in almost a week ago. It looked like he was away for a longer time, the color on her cheeks made it look as if he had been away for a year. Javert was not stupid, he knew what could make her healthy so fast, and it wasn’t his trusted doctor who did this, but the small girl who slept on Fantine’s legs, holding the bed sheets and some of Fantine’s borrowed night dress as well, he was sure.

 

In his mind, he tried to give her privacy in her tears, even if her hand gripped his, so he looked at the only one who seemed to be in complete peace of mind. Cosette looked like her mother. They had the same hair, if not the same color. He could see Fantine’s hair beginning to grow and to curl about her ears, the same curls that Cosette had.

 

Of that he was sure, he was the one who brushed the girl’s hair when he first bough her clothes. Cosette wanted to cut it all out, but something held him back, Fantine wouldn’t forgive him for letting her daughter have her hair short like hers. He would have to tell the woman about the conditions he found her daughter on, he didn’t want to have to explain her one more thing.

 

She was a good girl once you washed the grime of her face and let her fill her belly. For him, she was all smiles, a gapped toothed one, but this was common of children, he asked and that was just her baby tooth. The dress made her look younger too, just like a mouthy doll who liked chatting about all sort of things, from people on the street to the clouds on the sky. He let her talk, just as he did to her mother when he first met her, she would grow tired at some point, and would just lean on him before falling asleep, be there wherever they were.

 

His distraction wouldn’t last long though. In a sudden action, Fantine’s nails dug into his hand, demanding his attention and earning her a hiss of pain and a glare. More than the presence of the sleeping girl, it was her thunderous eyes that quieted him.

 

Tears marked her face, and as the pain in his hand grew, Javert could only stare back at her, and let her be righteous in her rage. For Fantine had the right for such feelings, if she knew what her precious daughter had to go through, of how her hair and teeth were sold only for the greed of Cosette’s “caretakers”. The pain she suffered with a brave face, all in the name of her daughter, it was all in vain, for Cosette suffered more than she would have suffered if she was together with her. Fantine had a claim in feelings, and there wasn’t a thing he could do about it.

 

“You brought her back” her other hand rested on top of Cosette’s head, caressing those curls with tenderness and love. With her voice heavy with tears shed and unshed, Fantine said those words to him, but not in accusation as he feared.

 

Javert feared for her health them, she was weak, the doctor said that when he left her there, and he doubted she would be perfectly healthy in just a few days. Even so Fantine offered him an open mouthed smile, no shame of the gap her missing tooth left, no hidden pain or disgust like when she offered herself in gratitude. She was truly happy, and he had something to do with that.

 

***

 

Fantine would say for herself that only the birth of Cosette made her happier than this. All in all, if felt just like it. Her daughter, her sun, was given to her by a man she couldn’t help but admire. Except when the first man that gifted her with her daughter, he ran away as fast as he could to the opposite direction. But the Inspector, the most feared men of the French police she was sure, he left them for sure, but that only served to prompt her daughter to come back to her arms. And he was back now, sitting by her bedside, holding her hand and letting her cry.

 

She wished having met him sooner, to have him as her daughter’s father. But that was silly and she knew that. The Inspector was a man who respected the law and morals, he would be disgusted to know she nurtured such notions. Besides, she knew that this wishes and what if’s that she deluded could only leave her with a broken heart. She had Cosette with her now, she had bigger things to worry about. There was no space for man in her life again, no matter who this man was.

 

Or that he looked much younger without his long police coat, or his tall hat. Or that the visions of him walking in with her daughter on his arms would plague her for a long time. He was no man for her, and wishing Cosette to have his long nose, instead of the same nose of the man she once loved, wouldn’t change a thing.

 

But she was tired and sick, and she thought that she deserved to ignore caution for that day. So Fantine let herself cry and hold onto the warm hand of the Inspector, feeding herself lies that that was only her husband, who brought their daughter to visit her, that they all loved each other very much, and all would be fine. Even if she knew that the truth was far from that.

**Author's Note:**

> I know this isn't much, the story is progressing on such a slow pace, but if you look at them, you kinda know that they're stubborn and the fic will go the way they saw fit, I'm only allowed to write it down.


End file.
